Category Archives: Uncategorized

Hello everyone! Welcome to March’s edition of Trans Talk! We’re kicking off the show with the transgender news of the month as usual, and then we are going to be talking with three special guests by phone – first we will talk with Jules Brackins and Ari Copeland about Transgender Day of Visibility, and then Rachael Cady will be joining us, a freelance lighting and projection designer working in the Kansas City entertainment industry, designing for shows at many theatres. We will be talking to her about her life and her art and the impact of the Coronavirus emergency

We do hope you will be able to join us this Saturday, March 28th at 1:00 pm on 90.1 KKFI, Kansas City Community Radio! You can also stream the program live on kkfi.org, or via various apps on your phone.

Monthly Community Calendar – by Fiona

Top of the list today is something with a short deadline – Whim Productions is soliciting scripts for short plays (1 – 5 minutes in length) for a project titled “Queering COVID”. These will either be performed in person after the crisis, or online via a streaming platform. The deadline is 3/31/2020 or whenever they reach 200 plays! For more details, please go to https://www.facebook.com/WhimProductions

Every month, I lead the Kansas City SOFFA group for Significant Others, Friends, Family, and Allies of Transgender and nonbinary persons. Due to the Coronavirus emergency we are looking into ways to have virtual meetings. For more information, you can visit transascity.org/SOFFA or always reach me by email at soffakc@yahoo.com

Passages, the LGBTQIA youth group in Kansas City, Missiouri, has suspended their meetings but they can still be reached for resources via their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/kcpassages/

There is an MTF support group at the Kansas City Center for Inclusion on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 6pm – they are suspended but the center is looking into online options during the emergency. There is an FTM support group elsewhere, both for adults and for youth, so if you are interested & want to find out options during the coronavirus emergency, please text or call Gus at 816-785-8686.

The Kansas City PFLAG chapter, which is Parents, Families, Friends, and Allies of LGBT people has a Facebook page where you can get more details on current activities – https://www.facebook.com/PFLAGKC

I’m Fiona Nowling and that’s the community calendar for the upcoming month.

If you have any events that you think should be added to the calendar, please message us on the Tenth Voice Facebook page, which is where this calendar will be magically appearing at 2pm!

Hello everyone! On this month’s Trans Talk we are going to start out with more of the transgender news of the month, and then we are going to broadcast (with permission of the speakers) three of the speeches from the Kansas City Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremony this year. Anthony is expected to lead a discussion about the bar and club scene for transgender persons in Kansas City, and who knows what else will happen?

We do hope you will be able to join us this Saturday, November 23 at 1:00 pm on 90.1 KKFI, Kansas City Community Radio! You can also stream the program live on kkfi.org, or via various apps on your phone.

Monthly Community Calendar – by Fiona

Up first, two events from the Kansas City Center for Inclusion – this coming Thursday, they are having their annual Friendsgiving: Thanksgiving at the Center, at 3911 Main Street, Kansas City Missouri. That starts at 11am and is a potluck brunch that all are welcome to. There is a Facebook event with more information at https://www.facebook.com/events/638598380208446/

Choral Spectrum is a mixed chorus (SATB) for the LGBTQIA and Supporting community. They will be having their winter season show on December 14th & 15th at Immanuel Lutheran Church. More information on times and tickets can be found at https://www.choralspectrumkc.org/season

Every month, I lead the Kansas City SOFFA group for Significant Others, Friends, Family, and Allies of Transgender and nonbinary persons. We meet on the first and third Wednesday of the month. In November, we’re meeting on the 4th & the 18th in Study Room 116. That’s at Leawood Pioneer Library, 6.30 – 8pm. For driving directions and other SOFFA information, you can visit transascity.org/SOFFA or email soffakc@yahoo.com

UMKC’s Trans Social group is back in session – it is for trans and nonbinary student and recent students. This semester, they are meeting on Thursday evenings from 7 – 9pm. For more details, you can reach out to the UMKC LGBTQIA office in the Student Union building.

Every third Thursday, the Equal Trans Support Group meets at 5:00 PM at the Kansas City Center for Inclusion, a couple of doors down from our studio at 3911 Main Street, Kansas City Missouri. The Center has lots of other events too, which can be found on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/InclusiveKC/

JoCo Q-Space is a youth group for LGBTQ youth. They meet every Thursday from 5:30pm to 8:30pm at Saint Andrew Christian Church 13890 W 127th St, Olathe, KS 66062. For more information, go to https://www.facebook.com/jocoqspace/.

Passages, the LGBTQIA youth group in Kansas City, Missiouri, is on hiatus and there are no details on their Facebook page regarding resuming. Watch this space!

There is an MTF support group at the Kansas City Center for Inclusion on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 6pm. There is an FTM support group elsewhere, both for adults and for youth, so if you are interested, please text or call Gus at 816-785-8686.

The Kansas City PFLAG chapter, which is Parents, Families, Friends, and Allies of LGBT people will meet on the 2nd Sunday of the month at 3pm, at the Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village, and the 4th Sunday of the month at 3pm, at the Kansas City Center for Inclusion.

I’m Fiona Nowling and that’s the community calendar for the upcoming month. If you have any events that you would like adding to the community calendar, please contact us through here!

The first event on the calendar is the regular episode of Trans Talk, an episode of the Tenth Voice, on 90.1fm KKFI, streaming online at kkfi.org and via various apps on your phones! Today, June 22nd, from 1-2 pm central time, we’ll be talking to Faith about the upcoming Trans Pride March, to Una about her experiences in an Asia this month, and we’ll have our usual news rant (hi Una!) and finish up with the community calendar (which is right here in a sneak preview!).

On June 22, as you just heard from Faith, there will be the first ever Kansas City Trans Pride March. This is a family-friendly and accessible event that will begin by gathering at Valentine Rd and Broadway in KCMO between 3:30 to 4:30, and you should park in the north west corner parking lot. The meet up will commence at Hamburger Mary’s Patio, and the march will begin at 4:30. The organizers are looking for volunteers and helping hands, and you can find out more about the Trans Pride March and volunteer should you choose to, by going to kctranspridemarch on Facebook, or by searching for kc trans pride march on transascity.org.

That same day, there will be the Johnson County Pride Picnic, at Sar Ko Par Trails Park from 11am to 2pm. This is hosted by five local organizations, including Equality Kansas of Metro Kansas City, and JoCo QSpace. Details about it can be found by going to https://www.facebook.com/pg/EQKSKC/ and their events page, or direct to https://www.facebook.com/events/516020002267007/ We do have a few things to celebrate in Johnson County for Pride this year, and some glaring omissions from some of the larger cities, such as Olathe and Overland Park.

An early heads up for an event for August too – on August 21st, from 2pm to 7pm, the Kansas City Center for Inclusion is hosting an LGBTQ Job Fair at the University of Kansas Medical Center at 3901 Rainbow Boulevard, Kansas City, Kansas. Details can be found by going to their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/InclusiveKC/ and then to their events page, or directly at https://www.facebook.com/events/441570989730438/ It’s worth visiting their events page anyway, they have all sorts of events going on every month.

Every month, I lead the Kansas City SOFFA group for Significant Others, Friends, Family, and Allies of Transgender and nonbinary persons. We meet on the first and third Wednesday of the month. In July, we’re only meeting once, on the 17th, because the library is shutting early on the 3rd. That’s just the 17th, in Study Room 116 at Leawood Pioneer Library, 6.30 – 8pm. For driving directions and other SOFFA information, you can visit transascity.org/SOFFA or email soffakc@yahoo.com

Every third Thursday, the Equal Trans Support Group meets at 5:00 PM. They also have a friends plus allies meeting on the second Monday of the month, at 6pm, and both are at the Kansas City Center for Inclusion, a couple of doors down from our studio at 3909 Main Street, Kansas City Missouri. The Center has lots of other events too, which can be found on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/InclusiveKC/

JoCo Q-Space is a youth group for LGBTQ youth. They meet every Thursday from 5:30pm to 8:30pm at Saint Andrew Christian Church 13890 W 127th St, Olathe, KS 66062. For more information, go to https://www.facebook.com/jocoqspace/.

There is an MTF support group at the Kansas City Center for Inclusion on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 6pm. There is an FTM support group elsewhere, both for adults and for youth, so if you are interested, please text or call Gus at 816-785-8686.

On the third Saturday of the month, Authentically Me meets from 1-3pm at The Kansas City Center for Inclusion. This is a social group for gender diverse children in KC and their families, aimed at children 12 and under.

The Kansas City PFLAG chapter, which is Parents, Families, Friends, and Allies of LGBT people will meet on the 2nd Sunday of the month at 3pm, at the Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village, and the 4th Sunday of the month at 3pm, at the Kansas City Center for Inclusion.

I’m Fiona Nowling and that’s the community calendar for the upcoming month.

If you have any events that you think should be added to the calendar, please message us on the Tenth Voice Facebook page, or email us through TransasCity!

Our first topic is the anti-transgender action perpetrated on April 11 at UMKC by a transphobic guest speaker, and the reaction by the UMKC and KCMO police. We will speak to Faith, an eyewitness to the event who will give us an account of what really went down. Then we will talk to Michael Patch, the Artistic Director of Choral Spectrum, Kansas City’s LGBT+ chorus that works to create bridges between different parts of the Queer Community. Last but not least, we will speak with Ian Staten and Lucy Kullowner from the Redux Society, an organization working to bring back art, fashion, and dance from the past with a modern twist, holding monthly queer dances and working to make their lessons inclusive of queer and gender variant folk.

I do hope you will be able to join us this Saturday, April 27 at 1:00 pm on 90.1 KKFI, Kansas City Community Radio! You can also stream the program live on kkfi.org, or via various apps on your phone.

This month on Trans Talk we’re going to feature the return of former Trans Talk hostess Nichole Reighlie! We’re going to talk about her life and times, especially becoming the first transgender woman to hold a royalty position in the Missouri Gay Rodeo Association. We’ll also hear about her bid to become the first transgender woman to run for Ms. IGRA (International Gay Rodeo Association)!

We will have a take on the transgender news of the month, and trans and non-binary book review by Anthony, and then finish up the show with the community calendar update from Fiona. I do hope you will be able to join us this Saturday, March 23 at 1:00 pm on 90.1 KKFI, Kansas City Community Radio! You can also stream the program live on kkfi.org, or via various apps on your phone.

Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual observance that remembers and memorializes the lives of transgender and gender non-binary persons who were murdered due to transphobia and hate. TDOR is a time for all members of our diverse community to come together in strength and power, as we read the names of the fallen and hear the voices of those who carry on the fight.

For the event of Tuesday, November 20th, the following events have been scheduled by a group of hard-working individuals from our own Kansas City area community (copied from the Facebook event page).

6:00 PM: VIETNAM MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN ON THE PLAZA (Broadway and 42nd Street)
Call-to-action rally in support of the transgender community. Local TGNC leaders will speak and equip allies with the tools and knowledge they need to support their transgender and gender non-conforming neighbors.

6:30 PM: MARCH TO COMMUNITY CHRISTIAN CHURCH (4601 Main Street)
This silent march will be just under a mile up Main Street. Please bring signs calling for transgender rights, transgender advocacy, transgender support, etc. Dress for the weather.

7:00 PM: OUTSIDE COMMUNITY CHRISTIAN CHURCH
Short debrief for all supporters.

7:15 PM: INSIDE COMMUNITY CHRISTIAN CHURCH
Vigil and place of mourning for transgender and gender non-conforming folx. Cisgender allies, please respect that this space is meant to serve as a safe place of grief and fellowship for the transgender and gender non-conforming community. We ask that you reflect on your position and situation, and respect the need for trans-dominated spaces.

As I’ve been updating the site with more of my archival materials (I still have less than a third posted so far), I’ve had to also make some necessary changes in the site.

When the site first started in 2012, there was a dearth of transgender information available locally to our community on how to transition legally in Kansas and Missouri. To help folks out with the legal aspects of transition, I consulted a local attorney and received information from transgender persons who had gone through the transition process, including my own experiences in Kansas, and I created the Kansas and Missouri transition pages. Which helped numerous people over the years.

Unfortunately, time passed and the information on the site became stale. I sought out legal help again from 3 different attorneys who frequently work with transgender persons in the KCMO area, and all three refused to help me in any way. Even when I asked for just general guidelines and how-to’s, they either said they didn’t want to get involved, or in one case said “why should I post information on your site that will make me lose business, Una?” I guess I have to credit her mercenary honesty.

I made a second effort this last fall to get updated information, but was unable to find a single attorney or paralegal willing to donate even a couple of hours of time to help me. While several persons who had gone through the process recently were kind enough to offer their help, what I needed was a more authoritative legal guideline that was more generic.

Thus, in the interest of only providing accurate information, I have been forced to remove the pages.

There will be continued reorganization and updating of the site in the coming months, which will move the focus more towards community history, science, social, and ethnic resources for us. The site receives between 300-800 hits every day from humans (meaning, non-bots or web crawlers), and can top 10,000 in a day when a newsworthy article is posted. Clearly the information here is valued by some, and I’m going to continue to focus on my strengths.

Please note too that if you have an idea for something to host on the site, please contact me at transascity@gmail.com. Also, if you have any sort of trans-focused event you want publicized, send that to us and not only can we post about it here, but we can tell folks about it on the radio for free.

Hello, and welcome to the June 2017 Trans Talk Edition of The Tenth Voice! We will have Debi Jackson and her family with us on this month’s show. Debi is the proud mom of a transgender daughter, Avery, and an activist. Avery featured on the cover of a recent National Geographic issue, “The Gender Revolution“. They join us this month to talk about the impact that activism has had on their lives.

We will also have our regular news round up of issues affecting Transgender and Non-Binary people, and finish off with our regular community calendar spot. We do hope you will be able to join us this Saturday, June 24 at 1:00 pm on 90.1 FM KKFI, Kansas City Community Radio! You can also stream the program live on kkfi.org.

Hello, and welcome to the May 2017 Trans Talk Edition of The Tenth Voice! We have two guests with us in the studio today. Registered nurse Kim Tilson is here to tell us all about the 2nd Annual Trans Health Inclusion conference which is coming soon, and to talk a bit about the past and present state of transgender health care. After a musical break we will be joined by Ari Copeland, a senior water scientist and transgender advocate who is going to discuss in depth some of the transgender news of the month and related issues with myself and Fiona in a roundtable – sort of a break from my usual news update, which many of my listeners refer to as “Una’s News Rant.” I guess we can call this the gender rainbow McLaughlin Group or something.

As usual, we will share with you the transgender news and the community calendar update. We do hope you will be able to join us this Saturday, May 27 at 1:00 pm on 90.1 FM KKFI, Kansas City Community Radio! You can also stream the program live on kkfi.org.

Summary: a surprisingly touching, respectful, and accurate fictional portrayal of the coming out of a transgender woman in England in the early 1970’s. This film avoids nearly all of the “transploitation” themes of most works up to the 2000’s and is a “must see” for anyone interested in a transgender “coming out” historical fiction from 45 years ago. Even though the lead is played by a cisgender woman, this film gives us a hint of how we could have started out on a more positive media footing barely 2 years after Stonewall. There is a complete review of the film at the link below, along with four clips from the film.

“I think it’s brilliant that we as an institution are leading this new approach and that we are leading this respect towards everyone no matter what they define themselves as.

“What’s really surprised me is the way that people have taken it within the school.

“I think that it’ll be foreign for people to see someone who defines themselves as a male wearing a skirt, and I think that will be something big, but I don’t think it’ll cause any outrage or backlash because that person will be massively supported by the pupil body.”

Christine Jorgensen’s story was introduced to most of the world via an autobiography which was published in the American Weekly magazine shortly after news broke of her sex reassignment surgery. We have purchased an original archival photograph of Jorgensen reading her own article in the Weekly, which has this caption on the reverse: “Preparing for a new life, in which publication of her color photographs will be the first task, Christine (nee George) Jorgensen reviews story[sic] of her life in American Weekly.” The date on the photograph is March 3, 1953, but there is reason to suspect it’s from later in the month. You can view and download a high-resolution scan of this photograph at this link here.

KCUR & GLAMA (The Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America) are bringing StoryCorps to KC – they’ll be at GLAMA at UMKC recording interviews on June 10, 2015 – June 13, 2015. It’s part of the StoryCorp OutLoud project – telling the stories of LGBT lives across America.

From StoryCorps’ website:

StoryCorps’ mission is to provide people of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share and preserve the stories of our lives. We do this to remind one another of our shared humanity, to strengthen and build the connections between people, to teach the value of listening, and to weave into the fabric of our culture the understanding that everyone’s story matters. At the same time, we are creating an invaluable archive for future generations. … Each conversation is recorded on a CD to share, and is preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.